Deadline looms for NDP to delay bills
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/04/2019 (1809 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
With one day left before the deadline, the Manitoba NDP would not reveal which government legislation it plans to hold over until the fall.
On Tuesday, the official Opposition also changed its stance on the Budget Implementation and Tax Statutes Amendment Act. NDP house leader Nahanni Fontaine had unlimited time to speak to the bill in the house, but chose to let the bill pass second reading.
The NDP voted in support of BITSA and the provincial sales tax cut of one percentage point, effective July 1. But MLAs continued to voice concerns about the election financing changes contained in the same omnibus bill.
Fontaine asked government house leader Kelvin Goertzen to send the budget act to the committee stage immediately for deliberation and amendments, which he did.
No amendments to the bill were agreed upon by the government and opposition by end of day Tuesday.
However, by Wednesday, the NDP could choose to designate BITSA among the four bills they are able to delay until fall under house rules. NDP Leader Wab Kinew would not say if that’s part of the plan.
“We have up until April 17, and I’ll have an update on April 17,” he told reporters Tuesday.
Kinew reasoned by “stepping out of the way” of BITSA passing second reading, the NDP could get to “the actual stage where we can deal with the part of the bill that we find offensive and undemocratic, which is the part that changes the Election Financing Act in Manitoba.”
Meanwhile, Kinew said he believes the only way the PST won’t decrease this summer is if Premier Brian Pallister were to call an early election before the scheduled cut, putting it in jeopardy.
Pallister referred to the NDP’s actions as “theatrics.”
“It elevates the central issue, which is: who do you trust? Today, the NDP came out and said they’re suddenly for a lower PST. They want a higher subsidy for their party, but they’re for a lower PST. That was the comment made,” the premier said.
“Do you trust the party that told you that before? That they were not going to raise the PST and then did (while in power in 2013). Or do you trust the government that ran on a promise to lower the PST and is keeping that promise? Fundamentally, that’s the issue.”
Pallister reaffirmed the government can cut the PST by one percentage point July 1 whether or not BITSA has been passed. He suggested the NDP shouldn’t hold back the budget bill.
“It would be a massive mistake to use (the delay) on BITSA, obviously, and far be it for me to give them political advice. But they clearly saw the polls in terms of Manitobans’ desire to have the PST lowered,” he said.
In a March poll, Probe Research found about six in 10 Manitobans (60 per cent) and two-thirds of businesses (67 per cent) agreed reducing the PST was the right thing to do.
jessica.botelho@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @_jessbu
History
Updated on Tuesday, April 16, 2019 7:35 PM CDT: Fixes typo